Volunteers, donors work to benefit homeless Rockford school students

ROCKFORD — Jeremy Hissong couldn’t sleep after learning about homeless students in Rockford who went without the clothes and supplies they need for school.

Hissong posted a message ago on Facebook saying something needed to be done to help these children. E-mails with ideas and support began pouring in and within days the “Kids Need Us” clothing drive was born.

Saturday, a little more than two weeks after posting that message, Hissong was in the Mondelez International parking lot — his workplace which supplied the venue and hosted the event — with dozens of volunteers sorting thousands of donated items to benefit the Rockford School District homeless program.

“It feels good to be surrounded by so many amazing people,” said Hissong, a Machesney Park native. “All these people deserve the credit. I think a lot of times Rockford gets a bad rap, but our community has a lot of great people.”

There are 1,271 children in the Rockford School District’s homeless program, up from an estimated 950 last year.

All of the items donated were badly needed, said Kevin Anderson, a homeless student advocate with the program.

“Some of the main items we find our kids need are socks, underwear, pants and so forth, clothing and with winter coming a lot of them don’t have winter coats and stuff like that, hats and gloves, and snow boots and snow pants so these are definitely necessary things we are getting here today,” Anderson said. “This clothing drive is going to be very helpful for us.”

Mondelez which manufactures gum at its Loves Park factory, donated the space for the event and assisted with logistics.

“It was great timing because Mondelez International had designated October as community service month and it was a great way to celebrate the one year anniversary of our new company,” Plant Manager Linda Akiyama said.

Dozens of people brought homeless school children more than 3,000 basic items like socks, underwear, coats, hats, and gloves.

Drop off points will remain available until Monday night at Insurance King locations, Talecris Plasma Center, Harlem Community Center, Park Lanes Bowl and other locations for people who couldn’t make it to the event.

Also, people can always donate clothing items and cash to the program at the Rockford School District homeless program located in the transportation building at 2000 Christina St.